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DataPortability: Logo Design Contest Winner!

DataPortability was founded in November of 2007 to promote the idea that individuals should have control over their data by determing who can use it and how it can be used. This includes access to data that is under the control of another entity.

After Red Hat sent a Cease and Desist claiming that the DataPortability logo was too similar (Identical, in their words) to the Fedora Logo the DataPortability Project needed a new design. So they asked their community to come up with designs and vote on them. They received over 400 designs and thousands of votes.

This is the new logo on the left, the old logo in the middle and the Fedora logo on the right:

The winner (not announced yet) is Alex Pankratov who will get:

An iPhone from Jive Software, weeks ad space on Techcrunch! Thanks to Michael Arrington over at TechCrunch, A Month of ad space on either CenterNetworks or HTMLCenter thanks to Allen Stern, $100 from Bub.blicio.us thanks to Brian Solis, $100 of Compete Credits to get access to premium reports thanks toJay Meattle at Compete, $500 and a “I’d sync that” t-shirt from Plaxo thanks to John McCrea, An A0 Trendmap from Information Architects, $100 from HedgeHog Lab, Free Ticket to Plugg (worth €500) thanks to Robin Wauters, A Goplan Unlimited account valid for one year (worth $1200).

Letters p and d are merged by overlapping their round parts and the result then rotated 90 degrees counter clockwise.

Note how gaps between the white parts and the main symbol form implicit arrows. When considered together with a circular shape of the central part, they create a sense of convergent, swirl-like movement. Movement reflects the portability aspect and convergence relates to the universality and amalgamation, which is what DP appears to be about.

Or in plain English — it’s a simple and unique doodle, which is also good looking :)

A summary of scaled down versions as well as black-on-white and white-on-black renderings are available over here.